advanced reading copy of ADOPTING GRACE
128 of 186

It was 2014 during a string of October 70-degree North Carolina blue sky days, just a few months after we moved into a new home. The weather beckoned and called out to our older daughter and led her to time spent alone in her new backyard. On one such day, I realized that she had climbed way up into a tree in the corner of our yard. The tug of war between “protective mommy” and “encourage the risk taking mom” flitted through my mind as she excitedly shared her adventure with me. There was a nest way up high. She was so excited. The “adventure loving, put my fears aside mom” won out. The “be careful” mom voice was quelled. In hindsight, a more full integration of the two would have been appropriate. On Friday night, good friends arrived at our home to enjoy our new place, and our four girls excitedly ran around to explore. We were midway through an adult home tour when I heard the voice of our younger girl. It was frantic and of an unusual pitch. Her sister had fallen from a tree. “Come now!” I ran to the tree and what I saw almost stopped my heart. My tiny sixty-pound girl lay flat on the ground. I know that some of my auto pilot response was shock, but I also in that moment knew deep in my soul that undivided and true presence with my child was critical. Everything else must fall away. I have practiced and practiced symbolically holding my children in the palm of my hands and letting them go to God. As I knelt down beside my precious, barely conscious girl, my heart and hands let go. I was full of terror, but the raw truth was this was a situation over which I had absolutely no control. ADOPTING GRACE ADVANCED READING COPY 128